The torch has passed to a new mayoral administration in New York City. The City has gone from having successful Nanny Bloomberg as mayor, to a socialist loving, race baiting divider, Bill de Blasio. In fact, the speeches at de Blasio’s inauguration were so divisive, hate-filled and delusional, that even Pravda-on-the Hudson, The New York Times, called the new mayor out on the tone of his inaugural. HERE

One of the more openly divisive moments of the inauguration apparently came during the invocation when New York City was termed a “plantation.” An insulting allusion to racism, slavery and bigotry. The speakers contrived to have forgotten that there are laws to protect people in this City from any manner of abuse. They contrived to render themselves blameless for society’s failures and attacked those who brought this City out of the maelstrom of terror, recession and day-to-day crime.The speakers continued to harangue the former mayor laying all the evils that they see before them on Bloomberg’s doorstep. Not surprisingly, De Blasio refused to recant any of what was said in these speeches.

Well what did you expect New York? You voted in a man who supported the Sandanistas, speaks of a socialist agenda, derides free enterprise and lays all the blame for inequality on race instead of the lack of self-sufficiency. He disrespects the New York City police force, acting as if they are the Gestapo, instead of the men and women who put themselves in harm’s way to keep us all safe and secure in our lives. He could have written his mayoral agenda from the teachings of Marx, Mao or Castro. Did you really expect him to be classy or appropriate?

But what does this divisiveness actually mean for the City? What does it mean for our culture? How is it going to play out in the four years to come?

The culture of New York City is an open door to immigrants and those looking to make it “big” in the American dream. The City is a place where myriads of cultures and dozens of religions are represented. You can take the driving test in over 30 languages and even vote in your native tongue whatever that may be. New York is a welcoming, elegant city where challenges are met, thrived upon and used for creativity. It is the excitement of living in New York that sets its vibrancy and its allure. If you want it, you can find it somewhere in New York. Here is the city that provides immigrants such support that in one generation a family can go from being housepainters to having their Bronx born offspring walking the power filled halls of the White House.

New York is the city that will bring out the best in someone and the worst. We have seen pogroms like in Crown Heights and we have witnessed a city reborn after 9/11. We have seen a City slip into the despair of the 1970s only to reemerge through capitalism and design as a shining beacon, an example of political vibrancy, forward thinking with an artistic challenging aura. New York is still the port of call for everyone around the world hoping to make it in America. They start here. They may not end here. But they begin their American journey here. We are many neighborhoods, blocks, enclaves and tribal areas. We are “little examples” of the immigrant countries left behind and we are the “big lesson”of what America truly can be. An America for all and an America that strives to be better the next day than it was the day before.

Is there jealousy? Is there hate? Are there antisemites? Are there racists among the City’s people? Are there problems to over come? Of course there are. For New York is made up of people, and people are fallible. We have every kind of person represented in our streets and in our lives. Good, bad, indifferent and malicious. We find every type of person including those that wish to destroy everything that others have worked so hard to build. We find those that refuse to take responsibility for the decrepit life they lead. We find those that seek to blame their lot in life on the color of their skin, the religion that they practice or the economic class into which they were born. We find race baiters and charlatans willing to use this discontent to further themselves, their own agenda and line their own pocketbooks. We find those who do try to take advantage of the less fortunate, the frightened, those that are trafficked and the uneducated as well.

Yet New York is the gold ring you can grab onto on the merry-go-round. But no one is going to give it to you and those who have that gold ring are not voluntarily going to give it up. You are not entitled to it, without working for it and without finding a way to better the world, or up the ante, around you. You must also want it more than the person next to you. If you want to succeed you only need to work hard and be better than the next guy in the cubicle to your left. (Meanwhile don’t forget that the lady in the cubicle to your right has already gotten the promotion because she was able to bring in that million dollar account…)

New York is not easy. But New York can be so astounding.

New York is a city for serious people and for grown ups. It is a world in which the stalwart and the strong of spine can accomplish any goal they set for themselves. There is all level of education. There is all manner of assistance and support. There are public parks, pools and open spaces. There are free museums and fairs. You can get an extraordinary education if you wanted without entering a schoolroom. If you do not take advantage of the world that New York has to offer, it is no one’s fault but your own.

New York is what you choose to make it. If you only see bad, then it is a plantation, filled with evil racist persons out to get those who are disadvantaged. If you see good. You see a melting pot. You see a City where opportunities exist for everyone if you are willing to find your niche and work at your future.

The mayor sets the tone of his administration. That he has set a tone of hate, divisiveness and discontent is more than sad or unfortunate. It is disrespectful of the people of New York City who do all the living, working and loving in this, the greatest city on the face of the Earth.

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